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Premieres

See Flying Lotus’ Soothing Sounds Set to a Black Okie Rodeo

Flying Lotus 'Wilcat' Kahlil Joseph Short Film Score

Back in 2012, Flying Lotus teased the impending arrival of his gorgeously surreal album Until the Quiet Comes with a similarly blessed short film directed by Kahlil Joseph. That clip made it into the program for Sundance 2013 and the inspired union of these two auteurs continues now with Wildcat, a new mini-movie that explores the uncommon world of Grayson, Oklahoma — a country town that plays home to a self-contained Black rodeo culture.

As if he’s not busy enough composing music for cartoons (Adventure TimeAqua Teen Hunger Force), masquerading as an evil animated rapper (Captain Murphy will play New York on April 30), prepping Thundercat’s next kaleidoscopic excursion (check out “Heartbreaks + Setbacks”) and scoring this other short, FlyLo contributed original music to Wildcat, which Joseph’s What Matters Most collective describes as “inspired by the composition and performance of jazz.”

Nowness debuted the new film and shared this quote from the director: “Black people are light years more advanced than the ideas and images that circulate would have you believe. The spaces we control and exist are my ground zero for filming, at least so far, and there are opportunities for me to tap into the energy. So an all-black town with an all-black rodeo in the American heartland was a kind of vortex or portal through which I could actually show this.”

Watch the beautiful, elegiac work above.